The most recent "A Brief Message from the Heart" Letter Contest award ceremony

On May 11, 2014, the latest edition of the popular writing contest "A Brief Message from the Heart", the 21th such event, was held in the Maruoka gym in Sakai City, Fukui Prefecture.

For this year's contest, the theme was "I will never forget" and a total of 41,237 entries were received from contestants located throughout Japan as well as five countries worldwide. At the ceremony, of these entries, 200 contestants received prizes include the winners of the five Grand Prize awards. Also, there were 10 winners recognized for their excellent work, while 20 were eligible for the Sumitomo Awards, five were honored by the Sakai Junior Chamber Incorporated, and 160 of the entries received honorable mentions.

At the beginning of the ceremony, a video with a beautiful aerial view of cherry blossoms around Maruoka Castle, was projected to the audience and contestants who all were mesmerized by the beautiful scenery. After the visual and powerful opening, each individual written work, such as "I can't forget"," and "I don't want to forget“ with their deep meaning and thoughts, were each dramatically read by four students from the Maruoka Junior High School. Moreover, each of the winners was awarded the traditional certificate of honor, which is made of woven Echizen (Japanese paper) and individually wrapped in beautiful Echizen cloth as well.

Mr. Hitoshi Komuro, a well-known, singer-songwriter composed music for each of the five grand prize winners and also sang a duet with singer, Yui Komuro.